Jack's Minty Fresh 68 Build

[Jack68]

April 27, 2022. Found an old water line riser on the farm that should work good to run the exhaust through the trailing arm cross member.





Our friend Larry was nice enough to bring his portable plasma cutter in and cut our holes for us.





Our buddy Kipp has an exhaust benders at the shop he works at. He bent us up some pipe to get us from the header back through the trailing arm.

[Jack68]

May 6, 2022. Time to get the front clip engine bay cleaned and painted before we throw it back on. Lot easier to do off of the truck. Painted the top side of the engine bay with black high temp paint. And sprayed the underneath with 3M under spray.

[Jack68]

May 11, 2022. Got the front clip reinstalled. Found a cool place to hide the pcm computer. Copied this location from LS1Nova71, that guy has one sweet build thread. Installed the drivers side battery tray, radiator and hoses, etc. Man this thing is really coming along.

[Jack68]

May 21, 2022. Modified the stock fan shroud to fit a V8 Jeep electric fan. Used the stock connector to make sure it was a waterproof connection.









Connected the drive by wire module to the proportioning valve. I would have liked to have hidden it like the computer in the fender well but this is the next best thing. It almost looks like an ABS module.

[Jack68]

May 27, 2022. Installed angled spacer and L-bracket to support the 2007 stock air filter housing. This is why we moved the battery to the drivers side. So that we could use all of the stock intake. We really try to make the swap as stock looking as possible. So now if I have problems it's either parts for a 2007 Silverado or a 1968 C10.







The engine bay is really coming together and I really like how it's looking.

[Jack68]

May 31, 2022. Our friend Dave helped us mock up oil cooler lines on a transmission case he had kicking around. We ran hard lines from the transmission supported by brackets bolted to the side of the oil pan. Once we got to the front of the motor we transitioned to heavy duty rubber hose the rest of the way to the radiator side tank.

[Jack68]

June 1, 2022. We have been pushing the project really hard lately. There is a reason for this. The last day of my freshman year of high school will be on June 2, 2022. I really want to be able to say I drove my truck my freshman year of high school. Here is the list I have made and taped onto the post next to my truck.



We worked until midnight on the 1st just to get the truck ready to drive home. I can remember how excited I was to be able to bring my truck home and take it to school the next morning.

Here is a picture of me and our friend Kipp who stayed with us until midnight to make sure we made our deadline.



When I got home which is 45 minutes away from the shop. I had one thing left to do. Install my freshly steel wooled front bumper. Now I was ready to roll into the high school parking lot just I had dreamt about so many times.



This is a picture my dad took of me when we finally brought the truck home.

[Jack68]

June 2, 2022 aka the last day of Freshman Year of High School. Rolling into the parking lot was more epic than the opening scene of dazed and confused.

The first picture is of me standing with my pride and joy.



Me in the drivers seat of minty fresh.



Me and three of my four younger brothers.



Picture proof of my truck in the high school parking lot.



To reward myself for a successful day with the truck, I installed my back bumper. The one thing I didn't quite get done on my list yesterday.

[clay68c10]

Great build thread so far, I’m eager to see more

[Jack68]

June 4, 2022 As exciting as it was to drive my truck to school, the truck definitely ran a little weird. The throttle was unresponsive at first and then would turn into wide open throttle. Luckly everyone thought I was showing off and doing burn outs on purpose. We installed a fuel pressure gauge on the fuel rail, turns out we were running a little high.



I know the corvette inline filter/fuel regulator has worked for some people, but it did not work for us. So, we ordered an Aeromotive adjustable regulator.



Here is our temporary gas tank situation until we mount it under the bed when we make it a swb. Even with the new regulator it still runs really crazy.

[Jack68]

July 27, 2022 My dad borrowed a fancy MATCO TOOLS scanner from his mechanic friend Mike. It took me a bit a figure out how it worked, but it was a super cool tool. Turns out when we put the wiring harness back in the truck we reversed the o2 sensor plugs opposite of what they were supposed to be, driver on the passenger side and visa versa. I was able to find that out by looking at live data fuel trims. Basically, it was flooding one side and making the other side run really rich trying to correct incorrect data. With the o2 sensor plugged in correctly its amazing how much better it runs.



With that figured out we decided to tackle another project under the hood. The stock LS intake pulls from the inner fender. So, we cut a hole through the inner fender in its new home

[Jack68]

August 18, 2022 Now that I have been driving the truck for a couple of months, we figured we should probably make it legal. Only insured it for liability $15 per month isn't bad at all. How do you like my plates vintage plates from the same year as my truck and the license plate numbers are the year and engine size as well, can't get much better than that. None of my friends understood the significance. Older guy at the gas station thought it was really cool.



My truck still has decals on each side of the cowl and one on the tailgate for the original dealership Edmark Chevrolet. I looked online and found an advertisement for my truck from there, pretty cool.

[Jack68]

August 28, 2022 Went down to Utah to see my cousins (my dad's brother). Went for a cruise in my Uncle Shay's '72 swb 4x4 Ford. My dad said it was fun to see my brother, cousin, and I cruising around in the truck he had so much fun working on with his dad and brother growing up. I am glad that our grandpa spent so much time with his sons working on projects. It is so cool that they still have trucks that they worked on with their dad and are now passing it on to me and my cousins.

We drove it to church and then went cruising for chicks afterwards. We didn't find any but we did get some thumbs up.

[Jack68]

September 11, 2022 Me and my brothers were feeling patriotic so we washed all of the trucks that we had at the house and parked them on the lawn. My '68, my dad's '70, and my brother Andrew's K5, my brother Connor's '76 Highboy and the family 89 S10. It is too bad that my other 3 siblings trucks are at my dad's shop in Gooding. We need to get them all together for a picture someday.

Attachment 2425790

[Jack68]

September 28, 2022 First break down. Me and my dad were taking my truck to work and a quarter mile from the house we were dead in the water. We walked back and got a volt meter and it didn't take us too long to find the break in the line going to the fuel pump. Definitely gave us some motivation to finish up the wiring clean up. We stopped to take a picture on our walk of shame home. Now I know what its like to own a Ford.

[Jack68]

December 25, 2022 I normally ask for truck parts or tools for Christmas. This year I took a break and with my new hunting license I wanted a rifle. I had to buy my own scope but the 6.5 Creedmoor was above and beyond what I had expected. I love this gun, just not as much as my truck. I just wished I was living in a time I could be hanging it in the back window of my truck at school. It is weird to think how much this country has changed for the worse when it comes to guns.

[Jack68]

January 7, 2023 Decided to work on my stereo system. Pulled the cowl off to put a new antenna on also added a new cowl seal while I was at it.



I also installed 6x9s in the cab corners and an amp to power them.

[Jack68]

January 31, 2023 We picked up an old 1996 Honda Civic Coupe for my little sister. It has a blown motor, so we got it for free. My dad had me tear the motor apart to see if it is salvageable. I am going to try and talk him into a turbo build. You can see my grandma's '27 Roadster pickup fenders in the background. Her dad, my great grandpa originally built it for her in the 70s. It is also on the project list as we are going to go frame up on it so it looks brand new. It is fun to always be working on different projects for me and my 5 siblings. We're always messing around with something.

[Jack68]

June 4, 2023 I went to visit my Uncle Kade he has a sweet 1972 Cheyenne Super SWB. He had just changed tire size so I was able to score his old set for $100. They're nitto and 20". I am hoping they come in handy in the not so distant future.

[Jack68]

August 20, 2023 Turns out when we shortened my drive shaft we clocked the yolks incorrectly, by 90 degrees. It was really noisy when that came apart. Luckly it was right when I was driving into the garage, Chevy's always get you home.

[Jack68]

September 1, 2023 Our buddy Kipp helped us get the drive shaft corrected so we could get this beast back on the road.

[Jack68]

September 11, 2023 Picked up an old Yamaha TTR225 for $200. Decided with my new found wiring skills from figuring out the LS that I will make it a street legal endro with all of the lights. Excited to get it done and hall it around in the back of my truck.

[Jack68]

December 25, 2023 No more guns for Christmas. Back to the important stuff like truck parts. I got a set of drop spindles. I am starting to plan ahead for my senior project. These drop spindles an important piece of the puzzle.

[Jack68]

February 22, 2024 My dad's birthday. My brother and I cleaned up his blazer and my truck so that we could take dad for a ride. One of his favorite things to is to ride shot gun in one of our project trucks.

[Jack68]

March 10, 2024 I got special permission from my senior class advisor to start my senior project a little early. As I am still a junior at this point. The truck is running good, but the old tires that we have been running don't look like they are going to be running much longer. We threw the truck on a trailer to get it to the shop in Gooding to begin on the surgery.



It was my first time towing a trailer with a car on it, it actually went a lot smoother than I thought it would.